Dragon Knight Chronicles ~ From a mere mercenary, rise to success through tactics! A small harem with the princess and the lord's daughter!? I'll also develop my territory! ~ - Chapter 133

Chapter 133   Cade and Rillburn’s Duke Banquet

Late January, in the year 569 of the Unified Calendar—

A special envoy from the Cade visited the port town of Europa. The envoy was Viscount Alvin. In response to this, diplomats from the royal family were also invited.

“Well, well, representatives from Cade, and even the Grand Duke’s family…”

At the banquet hall, the royal diplomat was taken aback. In diplomatic tradition, it was customary for both sides to send representatives of equal rank.

They hadn’t expected a Viscount from the Cade Confederation, and the highest-ranking diplomat from the kingdom was only a Baron. This was essentially a diplomatic insult to Cade.

“Now, now, as for this unfortunate offense toward the Cade Confederation, you can rest assured that the Rillburn Dukedom will mediate the matter for you.”

“Oh, well… I’m grateful.”

The royal diplomat was clearly flustered, wiping sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.

Of course, this banquet was designed to demonstrate that the Rillburn Dukedom was on friendly terms with both the Grand Duke’s family and the Cade Confederation. It was a political maneuver to ensure that the royal family wouldn’t even consider dissolving the Rillburn family.

The banquet was lavish, featuring rare delicacies from all four corners of the world, with no expense spared. While I didn’t fully understand the significance, since our former liege would also be attending, Arias and the rest of the household had unanimously decided to make the event as grand as possible.

◇◇◇◇◇

Three days later, at the government office in the lord’s manor—

The banquet to welcome the Cade Confederation’s envoy had ended. After seeing off the diplomats, each holding their own hidden thoughts, I reflected.

“That should serve as enough of a deterrent to prevent our downfall. Even though Cade is undergoing a generational change, the Clock regime, which still can’t defeat Duke Chad, will likely see us as valuable.”

“Indeed, I believe so,” Adelheid agreed, nodding before continuing.

“However, I still believe it would be for the good of the people, and ultimately for the Rillburn Dukedom, to overthrow the Clock regime and restore legitimate royal authority under Her Highness.”

“Do you truly think we should support Her Highness?”

“Yes, the majority in the main castle of Lebe believe we should back Her Highness.”

“But don’t you feel that Cade’s stability is still somewhat lacking? We’d need reinforcements from Cade to confront the Clock regime.”

“Yes, that’s true. Until Cade stabilizes, we should quietly gather allies.”

“Agreed.”

After Adelheid left the room, several other officials, including Lager, visited to handle matters of domestic governance. As it had been a while since I’d returned to my main domain, important decisions and a mountain of paperwork awaited my attention.

◇◇◇◇◇

Inside the castle of Europa—

“Poko~♪”
“Kuma?”

“Everyone, wait up!”

Juralvik was playing with Pokorina and Kumama. According to Dr. Gunter, besides the herbal treatments he gave her, she also needed exercise to improve her health.

While full-blooded dragons can remain healthy even when staying still in deep snow-filled caves, Juralvik, with her human blood, could not. Being half-human, she needed to eat warm meals, get plenty of sunlight, and engage in physical activity to stay well.

“Time for dinner~”

Recently, Io had been preparing every meal for us. Though her freedom was restricted at the main castle of Lebe, where she had to serve as the acting head of the Rillburn household, she could live more freely here in the port town of Europa, far to the east.

“Don’t steal my food!”

“Kuma~♪”

Kumama swiped some of Juralvik’s side dishes, causing a fight to break out.

“Fighting is no good. There’s more food,” Io quickly intervened, stopping the squabble. Juralvik seemed to get along better with magical half-breeds like Pokorina and Kumama than with humans.

“Auu, auu!”

Meanwhile, Opal and I ate our meal quietly. Opal, rather than being full of energy, was a somewhat frail and silent girl.

“Wait up~”
“Poko~♪”

That aside, Juralvik, who had been feeling gloomy, seemed to have regained some of her energy after two weeks. However, she occasionally coughed up blood, leaving her health condition uncertain.

Given that she was half-human and half-dragon, no doctor had been able to diagnose her illness or explain her poor health.

◇◇◇◇◇

In the middle of February in the year 569 of the Unified Calendar—

The quality of silver coins in the Owen Alliance Kingdom deteriorated day by day. Seeing the royal family lowering the quality of the silver coins, the citizens began to chip away at the edges of the coins to extract silver. They then sold this silver to the Garland Trading Nation, causing the kingdom’s monetary economy to descend into chaos.

“Count Sauer of the Imperial Court, is the economy still in disarray?”

King Clock asked the Chancellor, Count Sauer.

“Yes, I believe we must restore the quality of the silver coins to stabilize the economy.”

“Foolishness! That will make it impossible to cover the repeated costs of war!”
“Indeed, there are limits to the temporary taxes we can impose!”

The chancellor’s policy faced opposition from the financial officials in the royal palace. However, the poor quality of the royal silver coins became well-known among neighboring countries, leading to widespread rejections in multi-national trade.

Moreover, the decisive factor came when the mercenaries, the main military force, began to hesitate in accepting payments in royal silver coins. As a result, the Clock regime decided to recall all silver coins, melt them down, and restore the quality of the coins at the royal family’s expense.

This led to the success of the Reister’s family’s policy of minting low-quality silver coins, allowing them to earn profits proportional to the decline in quality.